Watch out for your [.]uk domain getting poached

[Graham Tyers]

Just a quick reminder to everyone that Nominet's right of first refusal on the top level UK domain equivalent of your dot Co dot UK domain will be free for any old Herbert to register come 10 June this year.

Get your domain name orders in now before I do!

 

[Mr D]

So how do the domains get poached?

 

[Graham Tyers]

So how do the domains get poached?

After the end of the 5-year 'right of first refusal' all co.uk and other uk domains will be available for anyone to register as the top-level .uk , so if you own widgets.co.uk and have for years, this June someone can come along and register widgets.uk and use that themselves.

.uk was made available in 2014 so many people will have forgotten about it by now. Nominet did say they would have an 'outreach program' to remind people, but we're getting close and I've not seen anything yet.

 

[Mr D]

After the end of the 5-year 'right of first refusal' all co.uk and other uk domains will be available for anyone to register as the top-level .uk , so if you own widgets.co.uk and have for years, this June someone can come along and register widgets.uk and use that themselves.

.uk was made available in 2014 so many people will have forgotten about it by now. Nominet did say they would have an 'outreach program' to remind people, but we're getting close and I've not seen anything yet.

So you cannot register it again yourself?

 

[antropy]

Thanks for the reminder. Alex

 

[Graham Tyers]

So you cannot register it again yourself?

Yes you can. Until the 10 June, anyone who has .co.uk ltd.uk. me.uk, org.uk etc are the only people who can register the .uk version. As soon as the 5-year period is up it's available to everyone.

I should think Nominet will heavily side with the original registrants in dispute cases, but if you have a very generic domain like televisions.co.uk or carsforsale.co.uk it's going to be fairly hard to claim abusive registration from someone else selling televisions or cars.

 

[Mr D]

Yes you can. Until the 10 June, anyone who has .co.uk ltd.uk. me.uk, org.uk etc are the only people who can register the .uk version. As soon as the 5-year period is up it's available to everyone.

I should think Nominet will heavily side with the original registrants in dispute cases, but if you have a very generic domain like televisions.co.uk or carsforsale.co.uk it's going to be fairly hard to claim abusive registration from someone else selling televisions or cars.

So not so much poaching as people buying what becomes available for sale.

 

[Graham Tyers]

So not so much poaching as people buying what becomes available for sale.

Very true.

People who don't take the domain for themselves will likely cry foul though when they see what they feel should be their domain appearing in the search results. People are funny like that.

 

[Mr D]

Very true.

People who don't take the domain for themselves will likely cry foul though when they see what they feel should be their domain appearing in the search results. People are funny like that.

Thanks for that. Will keep an eye out for what I can buy.

 

[UKSBD]

Something else to be aware of - Make sure you don't end up paying for domains you don't want.

123-reg automatically registered a load for me which I then had to switch auto renew off on :-(

Edit to add: Article about it from a couple of years ago - https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/...outraged_at_automatic_uk_domain_registration/

 

[14Steve14]

I am hoping that a competitor of one of my businesses forgets as I want the domain for myself. Not long to wait now then.

 

[jrwatson]

This happened to me.